Subby didn't RTFA:

About 500,000 Chicagoans live in food deserts with no easy access to mainstream grocery stores.

There are places in America where the average weight has not yet topped 300 pounds, subby! There is hunger in America and this must be remedied.

A food desert is a poor neighborhood with very few cars and no where in walking distance to buy an orange for less than $2, if there are any there at all.

Think convenience store pricing.

yah, and the areas are so crime ridden that the chains want nothing to do with them
grocery stores have enough of a problem making a profit
a grocery store in a poor neighborhood? forget about it

good luck there walmart

oh yah, good luck on getting people to drive into those areas to shot at your store
"where's my car?!!!"

JustinCase: A food desert is a poor neighborhood with very few cars and no where in walking distance to buy an orange for less than $2, if there are any there at all.

Think convenience store pricing.

This.

In many ways it costs more to be poor, and this is one of them.

*waves hand across face*

Subby: Whats a 'food desert'?

Delicious.

JustinCase: A food desert is a poor neighborhood with very few cars and no where in walking distance to buy an orange for less than $2, if there are any there at all.

This is incredibly true. I had an ethnic coworker who needed a ride home since she lost her bus pass and asked if we could stop at the chain grocery store in her neighborhood. Having had to shop without a car before I agreed figuring I could do some shopping myself. The prices were much higher than in the suburbs where you needed a car to get there, on the order of a good 30% higher with a crappy selection of items to boot.

These neighborhoods typically don't have banking services which mean my coworker was paying for check cashing services and money orders while I had direct deposit and automatic bill payment services for free.

The poor really do get nickel and dimed to death.

itazurakko: In many ways it costs more to be poor,

eddyatwork: The poor really do get nickel and dimed to death.

It's extremely expensive.

Aren't most desserts food?

/why you should avoid Wal-Mart

We call them Food Courts here. Called a Court cause the food is so bad, it belongs in one.

Food desert: The Alderman in control of the area demand a cut from mainstream grocery stores to move in. Grocery Store refuses. No grocery store in area. Alderman gives not a shiat since they don't live there.

swarms909: Aren't most desserts food?

/why you should avoid Wal-Mart

I'm guessing the poor don't farking care what their beef ate before it died. They're just glad it costs 2.99 a pound. I know I do. Sometimes I shop at the more expensive stores where they have "grass fed" selections, but I can't afford to do it often.

Basically if you live in a neighborhood where the only place to get food is either a small convenience store or a food shop/pharmacy like a CVS or Walgreens. I.e. limited selection and higher prices. This is definitely a problem. Some chains are relunctant to open stores in various neighborhoods because they worry about crime, etc....thus the entire population of that neighborhood has to deal with a lack of quality food.

There are even issues with CVS and Walgreens in these neighborhoods! I worked at a Walgreens in the Chicago burbs and we got a lot of shoppers from the West Side of Chicago simply because those stores had a huge theft problem (thus a lack of stock) or often got inept managers (and thus a lack of stock).

Am I the only one who read the headline and had to spend 30 seconds trying to figure out if it said "food desert" vs. "food dessert" even though the latter makes no sense and is completely redundant?

MickCollins: The Alderman in control of the area demand a cut from mainstream grocery stores

no really ???
you got a link to anything talking about this?
would LOVE to read more about it
(I kid you not, I live in chicago, and work in the grocery business, WOULD LOVE to know more)

/I would google it, but my google is broken

cryinoutloud: There are places in America where the average weight has not yet topped 300 pounds, subby! There is hunger in America and this must be remedied.

I think one of my favorite things about fark is when someone would post something, and then the person just below them would make that person sound like a complete and utter jackass.

JustinCase: A food desert is a poor neighborhood with very few cars and no where in walking distance to buy an orange for less than $2, if there are any there at all.

Think convenience store pricing.

OH NOES! PEOPLE WHO DON"T HAVE EASY ACCESS TO FOODS ARE GOING TO BE FATASSES!

I'm surprised this thread hasn't turned into an anti-Wal-Mart bash fest. Probably because people realize in this economy Wal-Mart is the best place to do shopping.

Find any Food yet?

I've got friends who live in a ghetto neighborhood in West Philly. Their supermarket has a great selection of produce and groceries, even better than I find at some of my local suburban stores. My Philly friends told me that the city made a lot of effort to make sure that "food deserts" were eliminated, as much as possible, by giving incentives to the chains to set up shop in poorer neighborhoods. Poor people don't deserve to be financially gouged for the basics of survival.

Food deserts are areas that have been abandoned by large grocery stores (particularly chain stores) because those areas are unprofitable or unsafe.

Dessert foods?

Retarded FIBers. Yes, that includes The Messiah In Chief.

/got nothing

deadapostle: Dessert foods?

Ahhh an oasis...I hope this isn't another mirage...

PLUS they'll be bringing secure ATMs, a pharmacy, and some above-minimum-wage jobs to da hood.

Damn those capitalist bastards. Obama's gonna fix their wagon.

Jonathan Hohensee: cryinoutloud: There are places in America where the average weight has not yet topped 300 pounds, subby! There is hunger in America and this must be remedied.

I think one of my favorite things about fark is when someone would post something, and then the person just below them would make that person sound like a complete and utter jackass.

JustinCase: A food desert is a poor neighborhood with very few cars and no where in walking distance to buy an orange for less than $2, if there are any there at all.

Think convenience store pricing.

OH NOES! PEOPLE WHO DON"T HAVE EASY ACCESS TO FOODS ARE GOING TO BE FATASSES!

Actually, the unfortunate truth is that people who live in "food deserts" are more likely to be fat, due to the high availability of fast food or convenience store prepared foods, instead of fresh meat, produce, and other staples that could be purchased in a grocery store for far less money. This is why obesity is so common among the poorest Americans. I hate Walmart, but it is a good thing if they bring fresh groceries and jobs into areas that usually have neither.

namatad: yah, and the areas are so crime ridden that the chains want nothing to do with them
grocery stores have enough of a problem making a profit
a grocery store in a poor neighborhood? forget about it

good luck there walmart

oh yah, good luck on getting people to drive into those areas to shot at your store
"where's my car?!!!"

Yeah. It isn't because companies hadn't tried to open shop there in the past. But when you are too stupid to make your place habitable, you get what you deserve.

Nobody does business in Chicago without King Richie getting his.

/wishes that Chicago would fall into Lake Michigan

The chain grocery stores take the responsible position that if they can't guarantee the safety of their workers, they will close the stores in a particular neighborhood. I think that is highly commendable.

Unless Walmart adequately fortifies and polices the stores, it seems that they are treating the lives of their workers rather cavalierly.

I'm pretty sure Chicago isn't letting them anywhere inside city limits.

There are Walmarts in the suburbs- your Ciceros, your Evanstons, your Des Plaines, your Lansings-- but I'd be shocked if they got into Chicago proper.

Oh noes! Wal-mart is the evil! Seriously people. Sometimes you need to eat an apple.

all those food deserts are mom and pop stores. walmart just wants their money and run mom and pop out of business. they are just a market they haven't fed off yet

swarms909:
/why you should avoid Wal-Mart

I don't think that review is very compelling unless you are already an advocate of that point of view. Also, the author of the review seems to ignore the tremendous efficiency of big agro type food production. Farmers Markets may be better in food quality, but they use more fuel for transportation, soil for production than a typical midwestern industrial type farm.

Like so many other ideas, farmers markets, the "buy local" ethos and the like serve mostly to satisfy the ego's and consciences of those who partake in them, they really have nothing to do with solving the actual problems of efficient, inexpensive food production and distribution.

Likewise, these people living in these food deserts would be much better served by a Wal-mart than the existing convenience stores they rely on. Let's hope chicago politics doesn't prevent that from happening.

Came in looking for this..

ttc2301: Nobody does business in Chicago without King Richie getting his.

/wishes that Chicago would fall into Lake Michigan

bitter, no?

Walmart wants to put stores in 'food deserts' in Chicago. In other news, there are 'food deserts' in Chicago. Whats a 'food desert'?

Food deserts - what's food deserts, precious, hmm? What's food deserts?

A year or two ago I read an article on a proposed supermarket near downtown Boston. It might have been on land freed up by the Big Dig. I was surprised that there was nothing already in the area. Developers like to put in high end stores selling yuppie food. There's a shortage of just plain grocery stores selling just plain food.

This?

Even money the unions block them as in the past.

Will TESCO may make a move instead?

Gosling: I'm pretty sure Chicago isn't letting them anywhere inside city limits.

There are Walmarts in the suburbs- your Ciceros, your Evanstons, your Des Plaines, your Lansings-- but I'd be shocked if they got into Chicago proper.

The WalMart in Lansing is in an area which is pretty much a shiathole. The mall just north across the river features carjackings and broad daylight thefts weekly. The customers for that shopping area are primarily people from the South and East Side 'deserts' of Chicago. The difference is that Chicago sets ridiculous preconditions for WalMarts to open in the city, mostly featuring union issues. This, when union membership is something like a tenth of the nation's workers. I'm guessing that WalMart won't pony up to make those preconditions go away and give Devil Richie his due.

MickCollins: Food desert: The Alderman in control of the area demand a cut from mainstream grocery stores to move in. Grocery Store refuses. No grocery store in area. Alderman gives not a shiat since they don't live there.

Alderman? Is that like a priest?

Security can be an issue. But, Walmart also has to keep growing, somehow, and there aren't too many other places to grow that aren't just cannibalizing another store's sales. Plus, there are dollars to be had. I know that when it opened, the Walmart in Kearny, NJ (quick bus from Newark) had the highest sales per square foot in the entire nation.

GoodasGold: The chain grocery stores take the responsible position that if they can't guarantee the safety of their workers, they will close the stores in a particular neighborhood. I think that is highly commendable.

Unless Walmart adequately fortifies and polices the stores, it seems that they are treating the lives of their workers rather cavalierly.

Don't worry, they will double the number of elderly door greeters.

Gosling: I'm pretty sure Chicago isn't letting them anywhere inside city limits.

There are Walmarts in the suburbs- your Ciceros, your Evanstons, your Des Plaines, your Lansings-- but I'd be shocked if they got into Chicago proper.

There is currently one on the West Side. The "Big Box" regulations failed to get passed last year and thus, alderman are considering changing zoning laws to let them into the locations discussed in the article.

/yes, the alderman and the Machine will get a cut.

Wrong_Intentions: Am I the only one who read the headline and had to spend 30 seconds trying to figure out if it said "food desert" vs. "food dessert" even though the latter makes no sense and is completely redundant?

Always ask for seconds!

kabloink: .

Don't worry, they will double the number of elderly door greeters targets .

ConnieLingus: ttc2301: Nobody does business in Chicago without King Richie getting his.

/wishes that Chicago would fall into Lake Michigan

bitter, no?

No. I believe in urban renewal.

JustinCase: A food desert is a poor neighborhood with very few cars and no where in walking distance to buy an orange for less than $2, if there are any there at all.

Think convenience store pricing.

But, in Chicago, the "convenience" stores are a lot cheaper than the "mainstream" grocery stores. A lot of those little neighborhood stores sell just produce or produce + ethnic food. And this food costs up to half as much as what's being sold at the local Jewel or Dominick's. It would be a horrible loss to Chicago if these little Mom-and-Pop stores went out of business.

greentea1985: Actually, the unfortunate truth is that people who live in "food deserts" are more likely to be fat, due to the high availability of fast food or convenience store prepared foods, instead of fresh meat, produce, and other staples that could be purchased in a grocery store for far less money. This is why obesity is so common among the poorest Americans. I hate Walmart, but it is a good thing if they bring fresh groceries and jobs into areas that usually have neither.


Thanks. I came here to say that.

Food deserts are what happens when local governments try to "protect" small independent stores and make it as difficult as possible for "big box stores" to move into an area.

WalMart is the farking savior of places like that, not a predator.

swarms909: Aren't most desserts food?

/why you should avoid Wal-Mart

Being a hippie activist is a luxury of the wealthy. Maybe we should worry more about making sure people have access to fresh, uncontaminated food and clean water before we start giving them shiat about where their goddamn beef cow came from.